WEB DESK
The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has directed YouTube to take down the three channels, Aaj Tak Live, News Headlines, and Sarkari Updates for spreading fake news in the country, reports AIR quoting sources.
The action was taken as the channels were declared peddlers of fake news by the Fact Check Unit of the Press Information Bureau yesterday.
In a statement, the PIB Fact Check Unit had said that these YouTube channels were spreading false and sensational claims about the Prime Minister of India, the Election Commission of India, the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India, and other Government schemes.
These YouTube channels had nearly 33 lakh subscribers and their videos, almost all of which were found to be false, were watched over 30 crore times.
It said, the channels were using fake and sensational thumbnails with logos of TV channels and images of their news anchors to mislead the viewers to believe that the news was authentic, were observed. These channels were also found to be displaying advertisements on their videos, and monetizing misinformation on YouTube.
In the last one year, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has banned over one hundred YouTube channels for spreading fake news.